Many government and private entities conduct lotteries. Government-conducted lotteries offer players the chance to win a large prize, and have the added benefit of increasing governmental revenues without burdening the public with additional taxes. In many instances, the revenue generated from a governmental lottery is dedicated, at least in part, to a particular purpose or goal, such as improving the education system or reducing property taxes.
Typically, government-conducted lottery systems utilize a central lottery computer to communicate with remote dedicated lottery terminals. A player typically selects numbers on a lottery “sense mark slip,” and the lottery terminal operator inserts the sense mark slip into a reader at the lottery terminal, which optically reads the sense mark slip using a known mark sensing process. Alternatively, most lottery systems offer automatic lottery number generation features, commonly referred to as “quick-pick” systems, which randomly select lottery numbers on behalf of the player. The dedicated lottery terminal then communicates the player's selected numbers to the central lottery computer for validation and storage. After the lottery numbers have been stored, the dedicated lottery terminal, under the direction of the central lottery computer, prints and issues the official lottery ticket.
One popular lottery game, commonly referred to as “lotto,” typically requires the player to choose six numbers between one and forty-two. The selected group of numbers are then compared to the winning lottery numbers, which have been randomly selected from the larger pool of numbers, between one and forty-two, at some specified time and date after purchase of the lotto ticket. To win a prize, the player-selected lotto ticket numbers must match all or some of the winning lottery numbers.
Lotto drawings are typically conducted on a periodic basis, with many state lotteries conducting “lotto” drawings as often as twice per week. Previously, players were required to appear in person at a dedicated lottery terminal to purchase their lottery tickets for each lottery drawing. In order to increase ticket sales, as well as customer-convenience, many lottery systems now offer subscription sales of lottery tickets, which automatically enter a player in the lottery game for a predefined number of weeks, often at a discounted price.
If the jackpot prize is not awarded for a particular lotto drawing, the jackpot prize value typically rolls over to increase the jackpot for the subsequent drawing. Thus, jackpots increase from week to week as no one wins. The amount of the jackpot prize is typically determined based on a sales trend from the prior year. It has been found that many people only buy lottery tickets when the jackpot exceeds a certain amount. Thus, as the jackpot prize gets larger, there is a dramatic increase in the number of tickets sold. Occasionally, when jackpots have risen to particularly large amounts, some lottery systems have not had sufficient capacity to meet the increased ticket demand.
Thus, during times of peak demand, players are met with longer lines at lottery terminals, and generally find it more frustrating to obtain a lottery ticket. Rather than providing an environment that encourages such infrequent players to become regular players, the difficulty associated with obtaining a lottery ticket for a large jackpot often discourages players from returning. While the subscription sale of lottery tickets allows regular players to enroll in all drawings for a predefined period, and thereby avoid a time-consuming trip to the lottery terminal when the jackpot increases, conventional lottery subscription sale systems do not provide a solution for infrequent players who only want to enroll in drawings associated with larger jackpot prizes.
Inherent in existing lottery systems are other limitations on their availability to persons who wish to participate in the lottery. For example, in bad weather, it is difficult for many people to negotiate travel from their homes or offices to a facility selling lottery tickets. Many people do not have cars or access to convenient public transportation needed to get to such a facility. And many elderly and handicapped are all but excluded from participation in lotteries because of a lack of the mobility needed to get from home to a lottery selling location.
Thus, there is considerable need for a system that will facilitate participation of all people in such lotteries and other authorized games of chance.